Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2017 i APC

W PA2, or Wi-Fi Protected Access 2, has been the standard security protocol for keeping our wireless networks safe for years. That safety net, we were informed, was just an illusion, thanks to one expert’s discovery of a vulnerability on the WPA2 four-way handshake security protocol. Mathy Vanhoef has dubbed the exploit KRACK — Key Reinstallation Attack — and it’s found in practically every Wi-Fi device used today. Once this knowledge was made public, US-CERT (Computer Emergency Readiness Team) issued a global warning, saying, “The impact of exploiting these vulnerabilities includes decryption, packet replay, TCP connection hijacking, HTTP content injection, and others,” meaning connections could be prone to simple eavesdropping to a full-blown hijack. Fortunately, many large tech companies have already started patching up the KRACK. Microsoft was the first…

Microsoft’s hardware is having an identity crisis. The company calls this new Surface Pro “the most versatile laptop”, which means that this apparent tablet is actually a laptop (that can transform into a Studio Surface). We’re going to reach deep inside and see if we can help. MAJOR TECH SPECS ■ 12.3-inch IPS PixelSense display with 2,736 x 1,824 resolution (267ppi) ■ Intel Kaby Lake Core m3 (4M Cache, 2.7GHz) up to Core i7 (4M Cache, 4.0GHz) CPU ■ 4GB/8GB/16GB 1,600MHz DDR3L RAM ■ 128GB/256GB/512GB/1TB of solid-state storage ■ 8MP rear-facing 1080p camera, and 5MP front-facing 1080p Windows Hello camera ■ USB 3.0 port, microSD slot, Mini DisplayPort, and SurfaceConnect charging port. ■ 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1 KEY FINDINGS ■ Microsoft has traded away the removable blade SSD for more…

“I understand why we need to support regional centres, but if those areas have low ADSL uptake already (which may be due to a non-existent service or need), then they should not always be at the forefront.” NBN ROLLOUT PRIORITIES Just in response to the June issue’s reader letter about the NBN being not worth having: from my perspective, there have been multiple problems with the way the rollout has been handled. Primarily, was anyone asked if we needed a whole nation upgraded at the same time to this type of network? Could we perhaps have had a slower but better deployment over a longer period using the money from users targeted at suburbs with high levels of broadband saturation to start with, before then moving to lower-penetration areas, deploying…

INTEL CPU $589 | WWW.INTEL.COM.AU It’s been one hell of a year for processor launches: Kaby Lake, Ryzen, Threadripper, Skylake-X, Kaby Lake-X and now Coffee Lake. That’s six different SKUs in less time than it takes to spit, each housing a plethora of fantastic advances for the computing enthusiast. It’s hard to deny just how much of an effect AMD’s Ryzen has  had on the industry. Intel, in particular,  has upped its game in response to the multithreaded prowess of the red core. And that response has come in two forms: Skylake-X to combat Threadripper at the high end, and Coffee Lake in the mid-range. So what’s so different? Not a lot. Coffee Lake’s architecture isn’t very different from its Kaby Lake predecessor — it’s more a refinement.…

WINDOWS 2-IN-1 $1,749 | WWW.ASUS.COM/AU With Microsoft focusing its computing efforts on premium Surface laptops and tablets, there’s plenty of room for copycat devices at a much lower price. The ASUS Transformer Pro T304 2-in-1 is a prime example. Priced at about $1,749, the Pro T304 costs less than a similarly specced Surface Pro ($1,999) and comes bundled with a Transformer Keyboard Cover and ASUS Pen, whereas Microsoft’s Type Cover and Surface Pen are extra costs. Spec-wise, it comes with either an Intel Core i5 or i7 Kaby Lake processor, a 256GB/512GB SSD and 8GB/16GB of RAM. On the right side of the device is a small notch for easy access to the hinge, a speaker grille, charging port, USB-C port, full-sized HDMI port and a standard USB-A…

PROFESSIONAL MONITOR $1,299 | WWW.ASUS.COM/AU Just when you thought ASUS’s product offerings couldn’t become more polished and consumer-friendly, along comes the Designo MX34VQ. It’s an awfully long way from those frills-free circuit boards of old. This Designo model feels like a carefully aimed headshot at the likes of Samsung’s CF791. In fact, the MX34VQ shares several key specs with that Sammy screen. Both are 34-inch super-wide monitors with 3440x1440 native resolutions. They’re both curved and both support 100Hz refresh and AMD’s FreeSync tech. Then there’s a very similar high-end consumer electronics feel to the both designs. But what really marks them out as peas from a similar pod is the use of VA as opposed to IPS panel technology. Indeed, with ASUS reportedly sourcing its VA panel from…

MECHANICAL KEYBOARD $250 | WWW.DASKEYBOARD.COM D as Keyboard’s original mission was building geek-oriented ‘boards inspired by IBM’s famous Model-M. All its boards now use some type of mechanical switch (most with the industry-standard Cherry MXs) and, bucking convention, its devices are aimed at keyboard warriors — programmers and typists, essentially — rather than gamers. The 4 Professional is a sedate-but-sturdy model with a charcoal-black metal plate, and buyers can choose between Cherry MX Red, Blue or Brown switches. The only extras are the small bank of media controls at top right. There’s no gaming bling to be seen — you won’t find things like 16.7M- colour LED backlighting or macro-programmable keys and you don’t have to install extra software to get full use of all its features. It…

US$250 PLUS SHIPPING | WWW.FLASHROUTERS.COM A pre-flashed router is a standard consumer broadband router flashed to order, preconfigured to connect to a VPN service of your choosing. The price for having the router pre-flashed is very high. The stock Linksys WRT1200AC retails for $240 in Australia, but to buy it from FlashRouters costs about $315, plus a shipping cost of about $90, which makes it a very expensive upgrade. Given that the WRT1200AC is one of the easiest routers to flash yourself, we doubt too many people will be willing to fork over the extra money. Cost aside, it’s a nice, mid-range broadband router. There’s nothing here particularly special or out of the ordinary. It’s just an 802.11AC router that supports 866Mbps 2x2 MIMO and four Gigabit Ethernet…

$125 | WWW.KOALASAFE.COM Although it works on largely the same principals as the Family Zone Box (right), the tiny little KoalaSafe is made for everybody and boils it right down to the basics. The KoalaSafe also creates its own independent Wi-Fi network. Shut off your existing Wi-Fi network (or at least change the password so the kids can’t access it) and have every device connect to the KoalaSafe Wi-Fi. The KoalaSafe then applies parental control rules configured for individual devices. The KoalaSafe box plugs into a LAN port on your existing router, and it’s entirely managed through a mobile app. We were big fans of the app — it gave us easy access to the all the tools we might want: access controls and site restrictions, activity reports,…

“Most, if not all, malware should be sufficiently crippled in Safe mode to allow complete removal.” Step one of the decluttering process is to make sure your PC is infection-free. Start by opening your antivirus tool to search for malware infections such as worms, Trojans, rootkits and spyware. Make sure its definitions are up to date, then allow it to perform a full scan. If infections are found, follow the instructions to either quarantine or attempt removal of the malware — you’ll almost certainly be prompted to reboot when you’re done, in which case, run a full scan again to verify the infection has gone. Some infections can be stubborn — if after two or three attempts the infection is still present, reboot into Safe mode. Those running Windows 7…

1 CHECK FOR PUPS If you’ve not already done so, run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. The free version is all you need: select Scan and choose Threat Scan if you want all PUPs treated as malware, or select Custom Scan to be alerted, enabling you to choose whether or not to remove the detected programs. 2 ENABLE SYSTEM RESTORE Some of the following tools will offer to take a Restore point in case you mistakenly remove the wrong program. Press Win-Pause/Break, and click System Protection. If your system drive isn’t protected, select it and choose Configure to do so. Set it to around 5GB or 5% of available space. 3 GET RID OF ADWARE Malwarebytes’ AdwCleaner tool targets other areas of your PC. It’ll detect software and browser add-ons you’ve freely installed,…

1 SET SEARCH CRITERIA Open Duplicate Cleaner Free and click New Search. By default, the program will match files by content only, but you can make it match by other criteria, such as name, the date it was created or last modified and so on. Click ‘Select’ to choose a type of file to search for — documents or pictures, for example. 2 SCAN LOCATIONS You can also limit your search to specific file sizes and dates. Once you’re happy with your selections, switch to the Scan Location tab so that you can select the drives or folders that you want to include in your scan. Click ‘Protected’ next to a folder to ensure its files aren’t removed by Duplicate Cleaner Free. 3 SCAN AND REMOVE Click ‘Start scan’ —…

1 INSTALL UNCHECKY Unchecky (www.unchecky.com) works silently in the background — if it recognises a dodgy program installer, it’ll quietly make sure any PUP options are unticked or deselected by default. If you subsequently roll your mouse over any dangerous options, a pop-up Warning window will appear. 2 BUY MALWAREBYTES The paid-for Premium version of Malwarebytes also has built-in blocking tools. These will automatically quarantine programs that are deemed as potentially unwanted when they’re detected. If another program is trying to install a PUP, it will be allowed to finish installing if Malwarebytes considers it clean. 3 FIX FALSE POSITIVES If you’re convinced an application is safe — IObit’s Advanced SystemCare, for example — then either ignore Unchecky’s warnings, or in the case of Malwarebytes, head to the Quarantine section…

1 REBOOT FOR MEDIA If you’re running Windows 7, or have Fast Boot disabled, insert your boot media and start your PC. Look for a ‘Press any key to boot from CD or DVD’ option — even if you have booted from a USB flash drive. Press any key on your keyboard and you should find that the Windows install process starts. 2 TWEAK BOOT OPTIONS If you boot back into Windows, restart your PC again, but this time press a key, such as F11, when prompted to open a boot menu. Once you have done so, select your boot media — choosing UEFI if that option appears — to boot; otherwise, enter setup so that you can change the boot device order. 3 WINDOWS 8.1/10 If Fast Boot is…

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti HIGH-END $1,130 | WWW.NVIDIA.COM Graphics cards are in a bit of an odd state right now. For the last 18 months, Nvidia has been left unchallenged, with AMD only providing any hint of competition in the mid-range. The RX 500 refresh was little more than a badge swap, and Vega a dud — a disappointing high-end solution, overhyped to its own detriment (although it struts its stuff nicely when it comes to cryptocurrency mining, annoyingly). So how does the land lie if you’re looking to invest in a high-end GPU? How do you power a 4K gaming rig in today’s market? Well, fortunately, Nvidia hasn’t been resting on its laurels, and is still focused on trying to capture as much of that market…

1 ADJUST A COLOUR CHANNEL Open a photo with greenery and a sky in the Photos edit view. Scroll down to Selective Colour. Select the green colour channel, and drag Hue all the way to the left. Notice how this shifts the greens towards red, making for an autumnal look. 2 AMEND THE RANGE Use the Range slider to adjust the range of colours over which your adjustment is applied. Nudge it left to soften the effect, or right to increase it. Experiment with Saturation to amend the intensity of the colour selection. 3 USE A CUSTOM HUE If you want to alter a specific colour, select it with the eyedropper tool, and then adjust settings accordingly. Click on the sky and maximise Hue for a freaky alien purple sky.…

1 YELLOW BOX When working with multiple tracks, the yellow box shows which you’re altering. Use ‘Shift-click’ to select and adjust multiple clips at once. 2 REAL-TIME EDITS iMovie is powerful: the changes you make are reflected in your clip in real time, making it easy to keep track of what you’re doing. 3 MAKE ADJUSTMENTS These sliders — respectively — are for adjusting the white and black point of the clip, its saturation and its hue. But the controls above allow you to change far more. 4 UNDO MISTAKES Made a mistake? iMovie makes it easy to revert to your original footage with this super handy ‘get out of jail’ button. 5 FILTER WOES  iMovie’s built-in filters are about as subtle as a pair of Dame Edna’s glasses, so…

Over the last year or so, we’ve looked at a whole range of different features that make up the Python programming language, from variables and if-conditional statements, to loops and functions. In fact, we’ve pretty much covered the basics for you to start confidently making your own Python apps. But to be in professional programming circles, you still need to have some computer science concepts under your belt and one of the biggies is ‘object-oriented programming’ or OOP. It’s a way of thinking or ‘paradigm’ that permeates how you create programming solutions for problems — and as its name suggests, it’s all about putting objects at the centre of your thinking. THINKING IN OBJECTS One of the great things about writing for APC, its sister magazine TechLife (and PC User…

Shortly after NBN Co released a statement promising that it would focus on NBN customers who have been left without internet connections, the beleaguered network has found itself under fire once again thanks to the annual report from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO). There are plenty of overwhelming stats in the report when it comes to complaints about internet service, but the crux of it is that, in total, they’ve risen quite dramatically since last year — including a staggering 160% in the NBN’s case. The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) has made its concerns known in a public statement, condemning the customer service performance of both internet providers and NBN Co itself, and suggesting improved community safeguards and a revised Customer Service Guarantee (CSG). In response to the…

“The excessive use of the internet in itself may not be the problem — instead, the issue could stem from other mental- health problems such as anxiety, depression or stress.” A brief glance around the carriage on a morning train commute will reveal that most of us modern-day, first-world humans are very invested in our phones and connected lifestyle. And why not? Smartphones deliver news and information literally into our very palms. They help us keep our lives organised. They can allow us to connect with our friends and family, (and indeed almost anyone in the world) through social media. They allow us to monitor our own health. They can prevent us from getting lost. And when we have some downtime, they provide a handy platform for entertainment. However, the…

Your shiny, cutting-edge smartphone is only cutting-edge for, at most, a year. Then the inevitable new iteration rolls around, and while yours is still functioning fine, it starts to lose its lustre. How can you possibly bear to cart around a slovenly iPhone 7 when there’s a shiny, magisterial iPhone X waiting in a glass box at JB Hi-Fi? That’s normal among enthusiasts — the desire for the best —  but are there more ominous forces at play? More specifically, is that older phone designed to run slower on a system level in a kind of subtle, underhanded way to try and get you to upgrade? The short answer is ‘kind of’ — but it’s not actually the hardware that’s to blame. That’s a fact made clear from a recent…

INTEL CPU $2,859 | WWW.INTEL.COM.AU For years, we’ve been begging Intel to cut the crap and launch some really exciting CPUs that properly push the boundaries of performance. After all, Intel’s Xeon server chips have offered huge core counts well beyond its desktop lines for years. Then Intel suddenly revealed plans for chips with up to 18 cores and, somehow, there was scepticism. It seemed like a cynical ploy to undermine the impact of AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper processors. That notion was only enhanced by the fact that Intel announced the new many-core models without revealing detailed specs. Knee jerks all around. Today, we have the Core i9-7980X, the $2,859 daddy of them all, in our eager paws, and what a monster it is with its 18 cores and…

GAMING LAPTOP $1,977 | WWW.ACER.COM.AU Acer’s dabbled in gaming laptops on and off for years but, like almost every other major PC maker, it’s now getting serious about this category — and that’s largely because it’s one of the most profitable when it comes to PC sales in 2017. The 15.6-inch Helios 300 is the company’s new entry-level gaming offering, and on the surface, it’s pretty decent value. It’s one of the cheapest 15-inchers to include a GeForce GTX 1060 graphics processor (you don’t often see big brand-names like Acer being this competitive on price) and it packs that GPU into a handsome and stylish gaming laptop body — one which employs the kind of shawn-off angled edges that we’ve seen on Alienware’s designs for many year alongside…

GRAPHICS CARD $1,099 | WWW.INNO3D.COM While it’s possible to pick up a reference design GTX 1080 Ti from about a grand, the Inno3D X4 Ultra adds a factory overclock and chunky cooling for just $100 more. The GPU’s 3584 CUDA cores have had the base and boost clocks pushed up almost 10% to 1,607MHz and 1,721MHz, respectively. It also has 11GB of GDDR5X RAM, 6- and 8-pin power connectors, and on the business end, three DisplayPort 1.4, a single HDMI 2.0b and DVI. The subtly LED backlit, dual slot, 3+1 fan cooling solution means the GPU is slightly oversize, but will fit in most normal size cases without issue. It should come as no surprise that performance is excellent, and at 1440p with maxed quality, we managed 101…

MECHANICAL KEYBOARD $125 | HYPERXGAMING.COM/EN The Alloy FPS comes with a number pad, but the Pro iteration does away with this in favour of extra desk real estate for mouse-wielding. Given its near-complete lack of framing or bezels, this makes for a ‘board about as small as regular-sized keycaps will allow for. That compactness will aid in portability, something that’s reinforced by a detachable USB cable, which is braided and sturdy, and the solid steel frame also lends to its impression of travel-ready ruggedness. The aesthetic is quite striking thanks to the surface-mounted switches making the keycaps appear to hover over the innocuous metal frame. A lack of markings enhance this by leaving the base upon which the keys are mounted relatively untarnished. This simplicity is carried over…

US$320 PLUS SHIPPING | WWW.FLASHROUTERS.COM The R7000 Tomato FlashRouter is another mid-range router model that comes pre-flashed with WRT firmware. In this case, instead of using DD-WRT, it comes flashed with Tomato. Tomato has a similar set of features to DD-WRT, but it’s arguably more consumer-friendly. Like DD-WRT, Tomato lets you use the router as both a VPN client and server. If you have an existing VPN service, you can provide the details to FlashRouters when you buy the router. It will set everything up for you, and all your data will automatically be routed through the VPN service. The highlight of this particular router, however, is that, if you like, you can specify that certain devices, websites or apps should bypass the VPN. That way, if you…

1 ZAP NASTY MALWARE If you can restart your PC in Safe mode — see the main body text opposite to find out how — with networking, then go to www.vipre.com/support/rescue to download a free tool that specialises in removing stubborn malware. If you can’t get online in Safe mode, download it on a clean PC and transfer it across. 2 SCAN WITH TWO ENGINES If you can boot your PC, but can’t get into Safe mode and have limited access to your system, download and install the portable Emsisoft Emergency Kit (www.emsisoft.com/en/software/eek) on to a USB flash drive on a clean PC. Be warned, it’s 311MB, so make sure the drive has enough free space. 3 PREPARE THE SCANNER Launch the tool on your clean PC, and select the…

Your computer should now be free from infections and unwanted software, but there’s plenty more junk clogging up your PC, so in this section we’re going to perform a deep clean. Let’s start by targeting leftover files by installing the latest version of CCleaner (www.piriform.com). Launch the program and then carefully go through the Cleaner section (split into two tabs: Windows and Applications) to see what’s pre-selected for cleaning. We’d recommend de-selecting everything under Windows Explorer to preserve previously opened file lists. Also, be careful on the Applications tab and think long and hard about deleting app settings you use frequently — if space is desperately low, then target your browser’s cache but leave other settings untouched. Once you’re happy with your choices, click Analyze. CCleaner will scan your selected…

You’ve reclaimed control of your PC and banished malware along with unwanted software and other useless files. How can you protect yourself — and keep your PC clutter-free — going forward? Let’s start with security. These days, threats to your computer come in many shapes and forms. In spite of the best efforts of security vendors, there’s no one-size-fits-all-approach to protecting your PC, so examine what threats are out there and — crucially — how to protect yourself against them. THE THREATS Malware is a constantly evolving beast, from its humble beginnings as a virus — a piece of code that replicated itself to spread havoc. The virus became a worm — a standalone program that can cause damage as well as spread, which in turn became a Trojan, which…

Reinstalling Windows from scratch — namely, wiping your system drive completely clean to install a brand, spanking new (and fresh) version of Windows on to it — is the ultimate choice for anyone looking to revive a slow-running PC or resolve a major, non-hardware issue, such as those caused by malware or a clogged up computer, In this final section, we’ll step you through the entire process. Ideally, you should have a recent and full backup of your PC, created using either File History or the Windows Backup and Restore tool before you begin, that way you’ll lose the minimum of content. A full reinstall really is destructive — nothing left on your C drive will exist once you’ve finished. You should ensure you have the latest installation media for…

1 FIND YOUR DESKTOPS The second you launch macOS High Sierra, you’ll see it has a brand-new desktop background. If you’re not keen, you can change it. In System Preferences, go to Desktop & Screen Saver. You’ll see High Sierra selected. 2 CHANGE THE BACKGROUND If you fancy using a background from an older version of macOS or OS X, simply click on it. (Unfortunately, our favourite is no longer available.) Alternatively, select from Solid Colours or Photos for a custom image from your own collection. 3 DRAG AND DROP You can also adjust the desktop background by dragging and dropping an image from Finder to the ‘well’ in the System Preferences pane. Fancy shaking things up more often? Tick the Change picture and Random order boxes.…

SECURITY HOW DID BITDEFENDER GET ON MY iMAC? I erroneously opened an email that appeared to be from a friend. In it was a link to a site promoting a weight loss product. A little later, I inadvertently ran an app called Bitdefender that had appeared on my Mac. Is my Mac now infected? Earl Hill Bitdefender Free is intended to clear out iffy software, rather than being malware itself, but it’s controversial and intended to get you to pay money. If you didn’t deliberately install it, we’d remove it, and avoid doing anything that could bring you to install other unwanted apps on your Mac: the next one could be malicious. Mercifully, Bitdefender has its own removal tool, which you should use as soon as you can. If you…

Gnome’s default photography tools are a disaster. The ageing Shotwell is OK, but inclined to hang if you ask it to deal with more than a couple of year’s archives, and the new Photos has a mind of its own when it comes to building a navigable archive. Gnome users who are serious about their photography can draw upon a hotchpotch of decent tools, but nothing comes close to the joy that’s expressed by their KDE-preferring peers who use digiKam. digiKam is unique not just in the Linux world, but pretty much in all of computing for its comprehensive approach to photo management. Some software is good at RAW (raw) conversion, some is good for building a navigable library of thumbnails. Only digiKam has it all, from lightbox to facial…

With YouTube, Netflix and Stan, finding something to watch on your Android device isn’t too difficult. Throw in the arrival of Freeview FV and you can even watch free-to-air TV over Wi-Fi or your mobile network connection. However, the downside is they all require slurping on your internet plan’s monthly data quota, whether you’re on ADSL, NBN or just mobile data. But there is a way to receive digital free-to-air TV on your Android device using no data at all and costs just $20 or so to set up — and that’s using a USB DVB-T receiver dongle. REALTEK RTL2832U When digital TV receivers for the PC first hit the market, they were the size of a graphics card and required a full-length PCI slot. Thankfully, not long after, USB…

PC, XO | $99.95 | FORZAMOTORSPORT.NET Turn 10 knows what its audience wants: more of the same, but better, and the studio has largely delivered with Forza Motorsport 7. Car handling has been tweaked ever so slightly since 2015. That glorious weight is still there, but feels more responsive than before, feedback through the controller amplified by better, more violent sound design and visuals that communicate the drama of metal-on-metal. Leaning more towards the simulation side than the loose and forgiving arcade, you can really dial it up with a wheel, but no one else does tactile pad controls like Turn 10. When it all goes pear-shaped, crashes have the power to shock and clipping a tyre barrier sends stacked treads flying. It can all be undone with…

3DS | $60 | METROIDSAMUSRETURNS.NINTENDO.COM It’s been over 10 years — an age in video game time — since the last 2D Metroid game was released, but this reimagining of the series’ second entry (which originally appeared on the Game Boy way back in 1991) was well worth the wait. And while it closely follows the classic Metroidvania gameplay template, Samus Returns incorporates enough new gameplay ideas to make it feel fresher than most imitators. Key among those is a new counterattack capability, which, if timed right, lets you quickly take down attackers by temporarily stunning and auto-aiming your weapon at them. It makes most enemy encounters faster than in previous 2D series entries, and combined with full 360º aiming (rather than at 45º increments) and some of the…

Mattel’s Aristotle no longer your kids’ ‘plastic pal’ Toy company cancels its kid-focused IoT device. CES 2017 revealed a number of questionable technologies, including the Hushme voice mask, a pair of vibrating shorts, a judgemental hairbrush and DockATot Deluxe — a crib that nudges your baby... (See issue 438, page 16 for more.) It also featured Mattel’s smart speaker Aristotle, a voice-activated companion for your child that can sing lullabies to babies, automatically order nappies when you’re running out, look for baby supplies deals online, read your children stories and help kids with their homework. It also comes with a wireless camera to handily send footage of your darlings to your phone. Strangely enough, parents (and the wider community) thought this sounded like a disaster waiting to happen, particularly in…

10 million AMOUNT OF FACEBOOK USERS THAT SAW RUSSIAN ADS DURING THE 2016 US ELECTION Facebook has disclosed that, around the time of the 2016 US election, over 10 million of its users were exposed to divisive ads that were placed by a Russian propaganda agency. The Kremlin-linked group, known as the Internet Research Agency, were responsible for over 3,000 ad campaigns covering key issues such as gun control, race and immigration. Facebook is claiming that over half (56%) of these ads were displayed after the election had ended, but that still means 4.4 million users — around 1.35% of the total US population — were reached before they went to the ballot box. 29% HOW MUCH AUSSIE ANDROID TABLET SALES FELL IN THE FIRST HALF OF 2016 While overall…

GOOGLE PIXEL BUDS A budding new wireless headphone contender. $249 | STORE.GOOGLE.COM One of the key features of this year’s best wireless headphones is the integration of digital AI assistants. Google may not have much experience in the consumer headphone space, but it’s clearly got an advantage in integrating the company’s Android-based Assistant app into its new Pixel Buds. In addition to rapid Assistant responses, the Pixel Bud’s boast real-time in-ear language translation when paired with Google Translate on a Pixel 2 smartphone. Add in a 5-hour battery runtime, with another five-odd refills available in the charging case, and you have an impressive feature set that’ll contend with the best buds in the business. JB FITBIT IONIC A charged particle in fitness wearables. $450 | WWW.FITBIT.COM…

“It’s actually when you put all the objective tests to one side and simply absorb the look of a screen that IPS scores most heavily.” Choosing a panel type used to be simple. You chose TN if you were cheap or wanted to game, or IPS for almost everything else. Now, it’s not so easy. The best TN tech has improved dramatically, though the benefits have only touched a minority of monitors. Meanwhile, IPS panels have become far cheaper, and VA tech keeps throwing in that high-contrast curve ball, thus offering a flawed but compelling alternative. Meanwhile, the PC is now so capable that the range of uses and applications, not to mention screen sizes and resolutions, are so varied that the pros and cons of the three main panel…

SSD $190 (ESTIMATED) | WWW.CRUCIAL.COM Keeping your expectations in check is not the most enthralling way to approach a new SSD, but it’s very much the attitude to have when considering a standard SATA drive, such as the Crucial BX300. For starters, it’s a SATA drive in an age when SSDs hooked up via the far-faster PCI Express interface are becoming ever more mainstream. Not only is SATA limited to a real-world maximum throughput of about 550MB/s, but its control protocols were never intended to jive with solid-state memory. That means random access performance is compromised, compared with the full potential of the latest SSD controllers and flash memory. What’s more, the BX300 isn’t merely a SATA drive. It’s an aggressively priced one, sold as a value offering,…

GAMING LAPTOP $3,199 | WWW.GIGABYTE.COM.AU Gigabyte makes laptops under a couple of different brand names, with those under the Aorus name generally leaning towards slick gaming units that are curvier and often have metal-clad chassis, whereas ‘Gigabyte’ models are often a bit bulkier and less-expensive. This Aero 15 X could almost pass off as one of its Aorus siblings, however, as it’s a super-sleek unit that’s pitched at both designers and gamers. It’s essentially a higher-end version of the Aero 15 that we tested earlier this year (see APC 443, page 19) and the key feature for designers is the display, a 15.6-inch number with a wafer-thin 5mm bezel — something that’s allowed Gigabyte to squeeze it into a smaller 14-inch chassis, meaning it’s impressively portable for a…

GAMING CHAIR $769 | WWW.MWAVE.COM.AU How could anyone possibly say no when asked to review sitting down? It’s second only to ‘lying down’ on my list of favourite things to do. This large gaming chair comes partly assembled in the box and with the supplied instructions and — seasoned Ikeans will know what’s coming — included Allen Key, it took us a leisurly 30 mins from unboxing to sitting. Noble recommends two people for construction, but this reviewer had no trouble flying solo. The Icon’s components are likewise top tier. The frame is steel, while the five-spoke wheel hub is aluminium. That’s topped (or bottomed) off with supersized 60mm casters for zipping around on soft or hard-floor finishings. The open-cell foam upholstery is forged from a cold-processing technique…

Without question, stock router firmware has improved dramatically over the years. The days of needing to understand the intricacies of PPPoE or knowing whether to use WPA or WEP wireless security are well behind us. There are simple mobile apps to help us along the way, and the quality of the administration interfaces has improved a lot. But we’re not all the way there yet. If you want to permanently connect your network to a VPN in order to protect your data from snoops, you’ll still need a special router. A lot of other features found in corporate networks still aren’t available to cheaper routers, either, even though the existence of open firmware like DD-WRT proves that there’s no reason that they can’t be. Instead, you have to fork over…

$89 PLUS $5.95 PER MONTH | WWW.FAMILYZONE.COM/AU The Family Zone Box is a new kind of device designed specifically for filtering adult content and managing access to certain apps and social media services. Although it’s technically a router, it’s not really designed to operate as your primary internet connection device. Instead, it plugs into the back of your existing router and creates an independent Wi-Fi network and LAN. Any device that connects to this network is managed according to rules you configure. Configuring rules is managed through a web portal, where you set access times, restricted sites, blocked services and so on for each user. Compared to the KoalaSafe (right), the process is a little arcane, but it gives some quite powerful tools for restricting access to sites…

Locating where those space-hogging files are can be an art in itself, particularly if you’ve exhausted all the usual suspects, such as your Pictures, Documents and other user folders. You could, of course, laboriously go hunting inside every single folder manually, right-clicking and choosing Properties, then waiting while its contents are totted up and a folder size produced, but a better option is to employ the services of a third-party tool designed to provide a visual overview of your drive’s state. CCleaner offers a Disk Analyzer under Tools that enables you to search by one or more file categories and storage drives, providing a useful graphical summary and a list of files in order of file size. Right-click a file to reveal various options, including that all-important delete option. For…

One of the biggest causes of clutter are programs that leave traces of themselves — leftover files and Registry entries — behind when you remove them. Use a tool, such as IOBit Uninstaller (www.iobit.com/en/advanceduninstaller. php), to thoroughly scrub programs from your PC — it’ll also work with Windows Store apps too, including those that came pre-installed with Windows. The latest version of IOBit Uninstaller also drops the annoying prompts to install Advanced SystemCare too, but remember to skip the prompt at the download screen to add a new tab to your browser. Think twice before installing any program — and get into the habit of using Macrium Reflect Free (www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx) to take an exact copy of your hard drive on a regular basis, using differential backups to keep the file size…

Once Windows is reinstalled, open Windows Update to bring Windows fully up to date — don’t be surprised if there are hundreds of updates. Once it’s fully up to date, consider reinstalling Macrium Reflect Free (www.macrium.com/ reflectfree) and taking your first drive image — a vanilla backup you can restore in future instead of reinstalling Windows itself. If you want to bring your installed apps along with you after a reinstall, consider using CloneApp (www.mirinsoft.com), which can backup app installs to a secondary data drive or external disk. After you’ve reinstalled Windows, install CloneApp again and click the Restore button, then every program setting you backed up will be restored. If there are any backup settings you don’t want to restore, select Options to locate the backup folder, then open it…

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X HIGH-END $1,399 | WWW.AMD.COM There is an argument for going with Intel’s Core i9-7980XE for your high-end upgrade — it’s an absolute beast, with its 18 cores and 36 threads. It does cost $2,859, though. For the vast majority of us, such a move makes no sense. If you want high-end performance that will leave your bank balance vaguely intact, the Threadripper is the way to go. And at $1,399, the 16-core 1950X is the best that AMD has on offer. Yup — half the price for two fewer cores (four threads). The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X is an incredible slice of silicon, effectively squeezing a pair of Ryzen 1800Xs into one package. There are big wins in addition to the phenomenal core count,…

Samsung 960 Pro HIGH-END $450–$1,799 | WWW.SAMSUNG.COM/AU No-brainer time: if you want the fastest storage around, you’ll want an SSD. Not just any SSD either — you’ll want a PCIe M.2 drive that is capable of producing the kind of transfer rates that make grown system admins weep. And at the top of that pile of drives at the moment is Samsung, with its 960 Pro range of M.2 drives, where you’ll see sustained transfer reads and writes of 3,400MB/s and 2,100MB/s, respectively. The random 4K performance is no slouch either, hitting 57MB/s and 194MB/s when throwing around smaller files. You’ll notice that we haven’t specified a capacity with our recommendation, and that’s because we suggest getting the biggest drive you can afford, without getting silly; $450 will…

1 TURN IT ON If a site claims you need another browser or device to use it, the Develop menu may enable you to circumvent the roadblock. Activate it in the Advanced section of Safari’s preferences (check ‘Show Develop menu in menu bar’). 2 SWITCH BROWSERS If you’ve installed another browser, it will be listed in ‘Develop > Open Page With’, alongside Safari. Select the browser and the current web page will be sent to it. Note that login details won’t go along for the ride. 3 SPOOF A BROWSER Go to ‘Develop > User Agent’ to have Safari pretend to be another browser. This is useful for when a mobile version of a site will play video, but the desktop version still requires you to install Flash, like you’re…

1 GET FLIGHT INFO If you punch a flight number into Spotlight, you’ll gain access to one or more matching flights. Select one to see a status panel with map, gate details, arrival and departure times, and even whether bags are ready. 2 VIEW SPORTS RESULTS Sports fans are increasingly well catered for by Spotlight. Type in a major team, be it for Premier League Football or your local NRL team, and you’ll see a list of recent results and also an upcoming schedule. 3 DO TIME-BASED SEARCHES Although still some way from a natural-language search tool, Spotlight can handle time-based searches. Try typing things like ‘apps from this week’ (for recent installs) or ‘documents from July’ and see what you get.…

One of the most popular maker boards right now is the tiny Arduino Nano. About the price of a cup of coffee, we’ve been using it for much of the last year to build everything from digital audio recorders to oscilloscopes. But it’s not the smallest Arduino — that title goes to the unofficial Arduino Pro Micro. It’s a cut-down version of the Arduino Micro selling online for about two cups of coffee, but with one unique feature — it can emulate a PC keyboard or mouse. ATMEGA32U4 While the Nano runs the standard ATMEGA328P microcontroller chip, the Pro Micro features the up-rated ATMEGA32u4. Apart from slightly more RAM, the ATMEGA32u4 has a built-in USB port — the ATMEGA328P inside most budget Nano boards relies on a fixed-function external USB…

PC, PS4, XO | FROM $24.95 | RUINERGAME.COM If you got a kick out of games like Hotline Miami or Hyper Light Drifter, prepare to meet their cyberpunk-obsessed teenage son. Ruiner is isometric, violent and unapologetically drenched in the neo-noir aesthetic found in ‘80s classics like Blade Runner. The hint of cel-shading in the art brings to life the graphic-novel grit of the environment, and the grungy, industrial soundtrack enhances that setting without relying on tropes. With a combination of a melee and ranged weapons at hand, you’re given your first objective — KILL BOSS — indicative of the arcade action that forms the core of the game. Ruiner spends most of its time testing your mettle in unrelenting combat. While the action is fast- paced, it requires…

PC | US$45 | DIVINITY.GAME Hmm, a sequel to a prequel — there should be a word for that... Kickstarted to the tune of around $2 million, Original Sin 2 is epic in both scope and storyline. It’s linear yet open — you can kill anyone, trade with anyone, talk to anyone — and following the success of the previous game in the series, has a lot to live up to. This is a thoughtful, sprawling update of the sort-of-isometric RPG. The very beginning screams Planescape: Torment, as your protagonist wakes up on a table in a steampunky laboratory, and it goes on to echo Black Isle’s Infinity Engine games as you explore cities and recruit party members, and The Elder Scrolls with its tale of a prisoner becoming some…